Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

epentance, further than by external marks taken from his words and
actions, which are subject to hypocrisy, another question will
arise: who is it that is constituted judge of those marks And this
question is decided by our Saviour himself: "If thy brother," saith
he, "shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between
thee and him alone; if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy
brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or
two more. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the
Church; but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee
as an heathen man and a publican."*(3) By which it is manifest that
the judgement concerning the truth of repentance belonged not to any
one man, but to the Church, that is, to the assembly of the
faithful, or to them that have authority to be their representant. But
besides the judgement, there is necessary also the pronouncing of
sentence: and this belonged always to the Apostle, or some pastor of
the Church, as prolocutor; and of this our Saviour speaketh in the
eighteenth verse, "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven." And conformable hereunto was the practice of St. Paul where
he saith, "For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit,
have determined already, as though I were present, concerning him that
hath so done this deed; in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when
ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord
Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one to Satan";*(4) that is to say,
to cast him out of the Church, as a man whose sins are not forgiven.
Paul here pronounceth the sentence, but the assembly was first to hear
the cause (for St. Paul was absent), and by consequence to condemn
him. But in the same chapter the judgement in such a case is more
expressly attributed to the assembly: "But now I have written unto you
not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a
fornicator," etc., "with such a one no not to eat. For what have I
to do to judge them that are without Do not ye judge them that are
within"*(5) The sentence therefore by which a man was put out of
the Church was pronounced by the Apostle or pastor; but the
judgement concerning the merit of the cause was in the Church; that is
to say, as the times were before the conversion of kings, and men that
had sovereign authority in the Commonwealth, the assembly of the
Christians dwelling in the same city; as in Corinth, in the assembly
of the Christians of Corinth.
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* Acts, 2. 38
*(2) John, 20. 22
*(3) Matthew, 18. 15, 16, 17
*(4) I Corinthians, 5. 3, 4, 5
*(5) Ibid., 5. 11, 12
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This part of the power of the keys by which men were thrust out from
the kingdom of God is that which is called excommunication and to
excommunicate is, in the original, aposunagogon poiein, to cast out of
the synagogue; that is, out of the place of divine service; a word
drawn from the custom of the Jews, to cast out of their synagogues
such as they thought in manners or doctrine contagious, as lepers were
by the law of Moses separated from the congregation of Israel till
such time as they should be by the priest pronounced clean.
The use and effect of excommunication, whilst it was not yet
strengthened with the civil power, was no more than that they who were
not excommunicate were to avoid the company of them that were. It